The Adventurer
by The One Whoo
Summary: Tora the Warrior goes on great quests throughout the land- but will helping the fairy Prince finally be too big a quest for her? Find out!
1. Chapter 1

The adventurer calmed shook her head. "No, we can't go around that way."  
"Why-y why not?" the little child muttered.  
They heard the fluttering of wings, and then a thud.  
"Tithe," said a husky, scratchy voice. "Now."  
The adventurer pulled her charge back toward her. "That's why," she whispered.  
The child's eyes went wide as he peeked out from their hiding spot and saw a Vyrewatch.

* * *

The adventurer took the bag of gold with a giant smile. "It wasn't that tough, really. All it took was some thinking."  
The old man bowed and thanked her again, and then the adventurer left, the boy waving goodbye at her from behind.  
As the adventurer walked down the dusty road, with forest on all sides of her, she sighed.  
"Now what am I going to do?" She'd been on that quest for days, and traveled a great many miles. But now that her mission was finished, she was sort of at a loss.  
"Maybe I should go make some money." She looked down at her road-worn boots and dented armor. It was charred by fire on one side, and had a hole gashed in it on the other from a monster's claw.  
The claw, by the way, was in her bag.  
"I've got to fix this," she said, trying to wipe off some of the ash on her platebody.  
"Excuse me, miss?"  
The Adventurer, standing in the middle of the road, looked around.  
"Hello, who goes there?" she called. She didn't see anyone in the bushes or trees, or on the road in front or back of her.  
"I'm up here."  
The Adventurer looked up. It was a fairy.  
"I've never seen you before," the Adventurer said cautiously. After all, fairies were fickle creatures. "Who are you?"  
"I am Prince Corinth of the fairy. I require your assistance, Tora. I need you to help me reclaim my throne."  
Tora the Warrior crossed her arms. "Alright. As long as the pay's good."


	2. Chapter 2

Tora followed the fairy. She was already familiar with Zanaris, and how to get there. She even had her very own lunar staff, which a kind Oniromancer had helped her make. However, it seemed the fairy prince had a different destination in mind.  
"We're going to the dragon lands," he said as the pair headed down the road.  
"Why?" Tora asked. The thought of going to the dragon lands didn't really bother her, not as long as she was prepared. However, why a fairy prince would want to go there confused even her.  
"I was exiled from most all lands of Gelinor," he said. "The dragon lands are the only place I'm allowed to live."  
"Exiled? Why were you exiled?"  
He sighed. "The council of fairy didn't really like the fact that I brought home so many different kinds of creatures. They said my infatuation with them was dangerous, and that I wasn't concentrating on my princely duties. What duties? My mom does everything. There's nothing _for_ me to do."  
"What kinds of creatures did you bring home, Corinth?"  
He turned around abruptly in the air and glared at me. "My name is Prince Corinth, peasant."  
"Technically, I'm a knight-" Tora began.  
"Whatever," said Prince Corinth. "I brought home all sorts of things, from rocks to geckos to dogs. I even had a baby dragon one time, but my mom made me get rid of it."  
Tora nodded. "I have a gecko."  
"When I wouldn't give my pets up, they exiled me. From everywhere. However, at the time, the dragon lands had not yet been discovered. So when they were found almost a week later, I came out of hiding and got there as quick as possible. If I hadn't, they would have probably found me and had me executed for not following the order of exile."  
Tora didn't say anything. She was contemplating how she'd almost not excepted that offer from the hairdresser on that one quest…Today would have been very different if she hadn't.  
"I haven't really explored the dragon lands yet," said Tora. "What are they like?"  
"Well first you have to fly over that pesky gate. They wouldn't let me through it." The Prince shook his head. "People just don't respect royalty these days."  
Tora rolled her eyes behind his back. "Go on."  
"After that, it's pretty much just lava and really dry earth. Sometimes you can find oasis', like where the water dragons live, but that's pretty rare."  
"Plus, they'll eat you if you even get close," Tora added.  
"Yeah, those water dragons are vicious," said the Prince.  
Tora put a hand to her forehead to block the glare of the sun. She looked ahead and just saw more dusty trail.  
"We should be almost to Draynor by now," she said. "We can stay the night in one of the houses."  
The Prince shrugged. "Don't know, but I've got to hide now. I've been out in the open too long as it is. I will ride in your pack."  
"Pretty stuffed in there," Tora said. "But sure."  
He flew around her and disappeared into her pack.  
"I bet your just tired of flying," she muttered softly.  
The Prince didn't reply.  
It was dark by the time they made it to the house. A man wandered outside, trying to catch the rats with his cat.  
Tora nodded to the man, passed through the yard, and entered the house. It was only one room, but that was okay for her.  
She closed the curtains on the windows, and opened her pack. The Prince was sound asleep, snoring.  
She grinned and set her pack down by the table.  
Tora took off her platebody and plateskirt, removed her armored boots and gloves. She tossed them in a pile in a corner.  
In her under-armor mesh, she laid down on the grubby floor. Ah, such was the life of an Adventurer.  
Too bad they didn't make it to Falador; there was at least an inn there.  
Tora closed her eyes and went to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, she woke early. The fairy was still asleep in her pack, which was annoying because she needed her stuff…  
She shrugged.  
"Hey, Corinth, time to wake up!"  
He woke immediately. "Prince Corinth," he muttered. Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, he jumped out of her bag and hovered.  
Tora shoved her armor into her bag, a magic little thing that could store 28 items, no matter the size.  
"Alright, I need to go stock up for the trip. Do you think I'll be fighting anything?"  
The fairy Prince shook his head. "I don't know. You're the adventurer here!"  
Tora grimaced. "Right."  
The sun was barely rising as they walked down the road to the bank. Only one banker stood inside.  
"Hey Eddie," Tora said, plonking her bag down on the desk.  
"Got tons of willow logs out here," he said. Eddie looked at a sheet of paper. "Need any? Says you have about 100 in your bank."  
"No thanks, Eddie. I'd like to get out some healing sticks- 110 would be nice. Annnnnd my traveling clothes."  
Eddie went back into the vaults, and soon returned with a sort of pencil-box –like thing, and a little tablet, that looked like a tele-tab.  
The Prince wasn't really paying attention to what was going on. He was too busy messing with the ad papers by the door.  
"Thanks Eddie," Tora said. She headed out the door, not pausing to see if the Prince was following. They soon were standing back in the yard in front of the house.  
"Alright," she said after a while. "I'm going to go get changed out of this under armor. Wait here."  
The Prince, although he didn't want to take orders from a peasant, complied.  
He hovered outside, trying to stay hidden in the upper branches of a tree. However, when he looked up, he noticed the sky was dark and threatened rain.  
Thunder boomed and big, fat drops of rain began to pour down from the heavens. He sat on a branch, and pulled his legs up to hug them. He was so cold all of a sudden.  
A gigantic drop hit the branch, causing it to sway. He fell off backwards, falling down toward the ground. He tried to fly, but another raindrop hit his wings, and they crumpled. He landed in the fresh mud in the yard, cold and wet.  
The Prince curled up and wanted to cry.  
The door to the house opened, and golden light spilled out. Tora looked around, shielding her lamp from the rain.  
"Corinth?!"  
"It's Prince Corinth, peasant," he yelled back.  
She splashed outside in her boots and picked him up. Thunder rolled again and the rain poured down harder. She held him close and hurried inside, slamming the door shut behind her.  
A golden glow issued out from behind red curtains as the storm continued on.


	3. Chapter 3

Tora laughed as she put Prince Corinth onto the table. She started a fire in the fireplace with magic and waved her hand toward it.

"Go ahead, dry yourself off."

Prince Corinth was sulking. He scuffed the wood and jumped down in front of the grate, turning so his wings could dry. He ruffled them and shook, water flying everywhere. It sizzled as tiny droplets hit the fire.

Tora was already in her traveling clothes.

"I guess you'll be going in my pack again," she said, picking it up from the floor.

"We're traveling in this? This deluge?" Corinth protested.

"Ah, it's barely a teeny shower," Tora said uncomfortingly. "Plus, if it get much harder, we can stop at Fally."

"Fally?" Corinth questioned as he turned and started to dry his front side.

"Falador, I mean." Tora cleared her throat. The pair was quiet for a moment, and all you could hear was the crackle of the fire, and the rain on the roof.

"So, why are we going to the Dragon Lands, again?" Tora asked.

"Well, naturally, we have to slay a dragon," Prince Corinth answered.

"Naturally. _I _do." Tora shook her head. "Alright, so why are we slaying a dragon?"

"To get the paper."

"What paper?"  
"The paper that tells us what to do after that."

"Come on!" Tora exclaimed. "This sounds like you got your instructions from like, a fortune teller."

"Well, I did." He turned back to face her.

"Seriously."

"Seriously."

Tora sighed. "Okay, let's try the direct approach. Have me go talk to your council people."

"If there was a council, we wouldn't need a Queen, would we?"

"Alright, to your Mom and her court, then."

"I don't think that'd work so well. Very stubbo-"

BAM! The door blasted open and fairies flew into the house.  
"You're both under arrest!" One shouted. "For violating Corinth's exilation!"

"Aw crud," Tora said. "Alright come on, pixie dust." She grabbed Corinth and stuffed him in her pocket, pushing her way past the fairies by the door. They shot spells at her, but her traveling clothes blocked most of the blows, even though they weren't really that good of armor.

Tora could barely see, the rain was so thick and the sky so dark. She sloshed through the muddy path toward the lights of the jail, then turned to the right, and kept running.

"Where are you-" Corinth demanded, popping his head out of her pocket. Tora smacked him on the head.

"OW!"

She stopped at a door and let herself in, slamming it shut behind her. She quickly made her way up some stairs.

"Dude, dude, wake up!" she called as she ran up.

A grizzled, tired-looking old guy with white hair appeared at the top of the stairs.

"I need you to teleport me to Yanille. Please," Tora pleaded. "Now," she added, looking back down the stairs toward the sound of pounding on the doorway.

"Yanille…Yanille," the old man said sleepily.

Then the world went dark.

* * *

BAM! The door crashed open.

"Sir, we have reason to believe you're…uh oh. This is the Wise-"

"Get out of my house!!!!!!!!!!"

(BAM hit for 140 hp)

One of the fairies crumbled and disappeared, clutching his stomach. "Tell my mom I'm sorry!" he called to his friend.

The other fairies booked it out of there, lickity-split.

The Wise Old Man rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. "It's way to late for visitors. I'm an old man. What do they want to do, give me a heart attack?"

He paused for a minute. Then burst out laughing.

"Now where is that dear old girl? Ah, I must have been dreaming again. My swan song." He smiled cheerily as he shut the door.

"Awful cold out. Awful cold. Dratted weather."

* * *

Tora blinked and looked around. "Phew," she said.

Corinth stuck his head out of her pocket again, looking kind of green. "Phew what? Are we in one piece?"

Tora smiled down at him. "Yes, and we're in Yanille. The Wise Old Man does it again. One of these days, though, I'm going to snatch that fancy hat of his."

Corinth shook his head. "Humans and their fancies, really. A hat?"

Tora nodded.

"It wasn't even your colour."

"Aw, shut up." Tora looked around. "Well, he landed us right near the Yanille gate. And, lucky us, it's bright and sunshiney here."

Prince Corinth fluttered up to Tora's shoulder. "Now how are we going to get to the dragonlands?"  
"Silly, the dragonlands are near. This cut like, two weeks out of our trip."  
"Now wouldn't that have been boring," Prince Corinth said.

Tora shouldered her pack. "Good thing I didn't forget this. Let's go."

Prince Corinth smiled.

"Are you sure about this whole Fortune Teller thing?" Tora asked as they walked out of Yanille, nodding at the gate guards and an odd man trickling sand…

"Yes, positive."

Tora shrugged. "I guess I've trusted fortune tellers in the past."

"And what happened?" Corinth asked.

"She helped me turn my cat purple," Tora said absently.

"Right…" Corinth looked the other way.

_What kind of person did I pick out here?_

"Alright, we're gonna make way to the Tree Gnome Village, and from there, to the Stronghold, and then we'll get to the Pass of Arandar-"  
"Wait wait." Corinth stroked his chin.

Tora stopped walking. "Yeah, what?"

"Can't you just teleport to the Elf Lands- Lleyta?"

Tora's shoulders sagged. "Well yeah, I guess. We could stop at that huge castle and grab my teleport crystal." She nodded at a musician and tossed her a few gp.

Corinth smiled. "Now that's more like it. I absolutely detest teleportation, but travel is the worst."

Tora rolled her eyes. "You'd never be an Adventurer, for sure."  
"Maybe, with a little training you could make me one," Corinth suggested.

"No way. I've already trained an Adventurer. And no way am I doing that again." She shuddered.

Corinth shrugged. "I didn't want to be one anyway. So there."

Tora looked at him. "Yeah, right."

"Really."  
"Really."

A few hours later found the travelers at a band of ogre's island. They nodded to a few other Adventurers who were slaying the aforementioned ogres. But they just kept popping back up.

"Beware of the water dragon. She's a beast, dude," said one.

Tora nodded. "I'll keep that in mind, mate."

The guy went back to killing the ogre.

Corinth looked at Tora. "What was that about?"

"Just some advice," she responded.

"Okaaay…." Corinth disregarded the oddness of the human's behaviour. A fairy could not even begin to understand their idiocy, what with a fairy being so much further advanced and all.

"Alright, just a few more miles, and we'll be there," Tora said, after they passed a wall and a 'Beware of Ogres' sign.

Corinth settled himself on top of Tora's head. "Walk!"

Tora shook her head and Corinth toppled off, righting himself in midair. He scowled.

Tora laughed.


End file.
